The guide for ANYONE who needs to understand the key technologies driving today's economy and high tech industries!

You can't afford not to understand the information revolution that's sweeping the world-but who's got time for all the acronyms and hype most technology books give you? The Essential Guide to Computing demystifies the digital society we live in with an intelligent, thorough, and up-to-date explanation of computer, networking, and Internet technologies. It's perfect for smart professionals who want to get up to speed, but don't have computer science or engineering degrees! You'll find up-to-the-minute coverage on all of today's hottest technologies including:

The evolution of computing: from the room-sized ''monoliths'' of the 1950s to today's global Internet

Whether you're a consumer, investor, marketer, or executive, this is your start-to-finish briefing on the information technologies that have changed the world-and the coming technologies that will transform it yet again!

Author Bio

Walters, E. Garrison : Ohio Board of Regents

E. Garrison Walters is Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs with the Ohio Board of Regents. He led initial development of OhioLINK, a statewide computer system for academic library users, and helped plan the expansion of Ohio's Internet-connected statewide computer network to link all public and most independent colleges in the state. Dr. Walters resides in Columbus, Ohio.

(NOTE: Each chapter concludes with a Conclusion and Test Your Understanding.)

I. COMPUTER HARDWARE.

1. The Core of Computing: How the Key Elements of Hardware Work Together.

An Overview of How a Computer Works. What Happens When a Computer Starts Up. The Computer Begins to Work. Binary and Digital. The Internal Operations of the CPU. Fetch. Decode (Analyze). Execute. Store. The Clock. Interrupts. Designing a Faster CPU. Architecture: Suiting the CPU to the Task. RISC. SIMD. VLIW. Linking CPUs. Microprocessors for Special Purposes. ASICs. DSPs. Media Processors. FPGAs. New Approaches to Computing. Supercooling. Optical Computing. Even More Exotic Stuff.

2. Memory, Storage, and Input/Output.

An Overview of How Storage Works. A File Is Loaded into Memory. The CPU Gets Information from Disk. A File Is Saved to Disk. The Memory System. The Memory Problem. The System (Memory) Bus. Memory Chips. Some Other Types of Chip Storage. Disk Storage. Magnetic Storage. Optical Storage. The I/O Bus. PCI. External I/O. Chipsets.

Silicon Foundations: Making Chips. Smaller Is Cheaper. Smaller Is Faster. Smaller Uses Less Power. New Approaches to Chipmaking. Microprocessor Families. Intel Corporation. Intel Clones. RISC CPUs. Summary: Can Anyone Compete with Intel? Types of Computers. Mainframes. Supercomputers. Servers and Workstations. Desktops. The Set-top Box. Portable Systems. The Evolving Microprocessor Architecture: What Do You Do with a Billion Transistors on One Chip? ASIC-Oriented. General-Purpose CPU. Media Processors. System on Chip.

Putting It All Together.

Servers. A Graphics System. An Analytical System. A Desktop System. A Portable System.

II. SOFTWARE.

5. Fundamentals of the Operating System.

Why Have an Operating System? The Core Functions of an Operating System. System Supervision. Services to Hardware. Services to Software. Communications Services. Security. Single-User Systems in a Networked Environment. Directories. The Structure of the Operating System. The Kernel. User Section. The Challenge of Multiprocessing. Multiprocessing and the OS. Multiprocessing in Hardware.

Microsoft's MS-DOS. An Overview of MS-DOS. Memory and Task Management. The Mac OS. Key Characteristics of the Mac OS. Initial Development of the Mac OS. Compatibility Issues. The Mac Shifts to the PowerPC. The Current Mac OS. Windows. Key Characteristics of the Window OS Series. Windows 1.0 to 2.0. Windows 3.0. Windows 95 and Windows 98. Windows NT/2000. OS/2. A Network-only OS: NetWare. Very Small System OSs. The Palm OS. Epoc.

The guide for ANYONE who needs to understand the key technologies driving today's economy and high tech industries!

You can't afford not to understand the information revolution that's sweeping the world-but who's got time for all the acronyms and hype most technology books give you? The Essential Guide to Computing demystifies the digital society we live in with an intelligent, thorough, and up-to-date explanation of computer, networking, and Internet technologies. It's perfect for smart professionals who want to get up to speed, but don't have computer science or engineering degrees! You'll find up-to-the-minute coverage on all of today's hottest technologies including:

The evolution of computing: from the room-sized ''monoliths'' of the 1950s to today's global Internet

Whether you're a consumer, investor, marketer, or executive, this is your start-to-finish briefing on the information technologies that have changed the world-and the coming technologies that will transform it yet again!

Author Bio

Walters, E. Garrison : Ohio Board of Regents

E. Garrison Walters is Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs with the Ohio Board of Regents. He led initial development of OhioLINK, a statewide computer system for academic library users, and helped plan the expansion of Ohio's Internet-connected statewide computer network to link all public and most independent colleges in the state. Dr. Walters resides in Columbus, Ohio.

Table of Contents

(NOTE: Each chapter concludes with a Conclusion and Test Your Understanding.)

I. COMPUTER HARDWARE.

1. The Core of Computing: How the Key Elements of Hardware Work Together.

An Overview of How a Computer Works. What Happens When a Computer Starts Up. The Computer Begins to Work. Binary and Digital. The Internal Operations of the CPU. Fetch. Decode (Analyze). Execute. Store. The Clock. Interrupts. Designing a Faster CPU. Architecture: Suiting the CPU to the Task. RISC. SIMD. VLIW. Linking CPUs. Microprocessors for Special Purposes. ASICs. DSPs. Media Processors. FPGAs. New Approaches to Computing. Supercooling. Optical Computing. Even More Exotic Stuff.

2. Memory, Storage, and Input/Output.

An Overview of How Storage Works. A File Is Loaded into Memory. The CPU Gets Information from Disk. A File Is Saved to Disk. The Memory System. The Memory Problem. The System (Memory) Bus. Memory Chips. Some Other Types of Chip Storage. Disk Storage. Magnetic Storage. Optical Storage. The I/O Bus. PCI. External I/O. Chipsets.

Silicon Foundations: Making Chips. Smaller Is Cheaper. Smaller Is Faster. Smaller Uses Less Power. New Approaches to Chipmaking. Microprocessor Families. Intel Corporation. Intel Clones. RISC CPUs. Summary: Can Anyone Compete with Intel? Types of Computers. Mainframes. Supercomputers. Servers and Workstations. Desktops. The Set-top Box. Portable Systems. The Evolving Microprocessor Architecture: What Do You Do with a Billion Transistors on One Chip? ASIC-Oriented. General-Purpose CPU. Media Processors. System on Chip.

Putting It All Together.

Servers. A Graphics System. An Analytical System. A Desktop System. A Portable System.

II. SOFTWARE.

5. Fundamentals of the Operating System.

Why Have an Operating System? The Core Functions of an Operating System. System Supervision. Services to Hardware. Services to Software. Communications Services. Security. Single-User Systems in a Networked Environment. Directories. The Structure of the Operating System. The Kernel. User Section. The Challenge of Multiprocessing. Multiprocessing and the OS. Multiprocessing in Hardware.

Microsoft's MS-DOS. An Overview of MS-DOS. Memory and Task Management. The Mac OS. Key Characteristics of the Mac OS. Initial Development of the Mac OS. Compatibility Issues. The Mac Shifts to the PowerPC. The Current Mac OS. Windows. Key Characteristics of the Window OS Series. Windows 1.0 to 2.0. Windows 3.0. Windows 95 and Windows 98. Windows NT/2000. OS/2. A Network-only OS: NetWare. Very Small System OSs. The Palm OS. Epoc.